Labour and Employment Law Blog

The holiday season often brings a surge of workplace festivities, with office parties serving as a way to boost morale, celebrate successes, and foster team spirit. While these events can be an opportunity to reward employees, they also come with a host of legal risks if not carefully planned. As an employer, understanding the potential pitfalls of holiday parties can help ...

It is not uncommon, but frustrating for employers, when an employee who is off work for an alleged illness provides no doctor’s note or a doctor’s note that simply says something like “Patient needs to be off work for a month”. The employee then assumes that they are entitled to have the time off with no further questions asked. Sometimes their doctors think this too.  ...

One of the vexing issues that employers face in dealing with poor performers in the non-union context is whether it is more cost effective to terminate the employee’s employment without cause or to put the employee on a performance improvement plan (“PIP”), with the goal of establishing termination for just cause when the employee fails to meet the performance ...

Many employers establish policies that they expect their employees to follow, but a policy is not likely to be followed if there are no consequences for an employee who chooses not to do so.  If an employer wants to use the stick of discipline and possible termination of employment for cause for a breach of policy, the employer should take note of the following guidance.

In order ...

Further to our previous blog post on paid sick days, the British Columbia government has just announced amendments to paid sick days under the Employment Standards Act. The amendments are:

• Calendar Year: The current language in the Act says that employees are entitled to five paid sick days in “each employment year.” This was administratively burdensome for employers ...

Employers commonly seek our advice on issues related to maternity and parental leave. Here are some of our most frequently asked questions:

Q: Can I ask a candidate for employment whether or not they are pregnant, or whether they are planning on starting a family? I need to know to minimize disruption to my small business.

A: It is generally inadvisable to ask such questions ...

Did you know that businesses are protected from being sued for COVID-19 transmission, in certain circumstances, in British Columbia?

In the summer of 2020, the British Columbia government enacted the COVID-19 Related Measures Act and the Covid-19 (Limits on Actions and Proceedings) Regulation to support B.C.’s restart plan for the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the ...

Last year, we published a blog about things an employer should do before they terminate the employment of an employee. In recent years, employers are facing increasing claims for aggravated damages arising out of the manner in which the employer has carried out the termination of an employee’s employment.  In order to minimize the possibility that aggravated damages ...

Terminating the employment of an employee is never easy. There are many things to consider from both a practical and legal perspective. The more prepared you can be the better. While not exhaustive, set out below are some questions every employer should be asking themselves before they terminate the employment of any non-union employee on a “without cause” basis.

• What ...

The B.C. Employment Standards Branch (“ESB”) has recently published guidance on how business closures and staffing reductions related to the COVID-19 pandemic may exempt British Columbia employers from the obligation to provide employees with statutory termination notice or pay in lieu of notice.

The B.C. Employment Standards Act (“ESA”) sets out the minimum ...